Despite the outcome in Iowa apparently giving Hillary Clinton a very slim lead, there is certainly no reason for us supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders to be disappointed. Tonight was a victory for him.
Look where he started. Look how far he has come despite a few stumbles and fumbles. Look at his momentum going forward. And look at the well-oiled machine he was up against. To be honest, he has surprised even his most avid backers. Of course, tonight’s contest was just the first of many. And the odds are still against him, something we’ve known since the get-go.
But whatever happens in this contest going forward, even if he were to win in New Hampshire and lose every state thereafter (which is unlikely), Sanders has already breathed new life into the progressive agenda, called forth a can-do spirit for our struggle against the domination of the 1%, and presented a vision of a future America not ruled by naysayers and numbskulls.
As Sanders has said all along, this campaign is not just about him or just about gaining the presidency. Win or lose the nomination, the campaign is about building a movement, or rather building an alliance of the different movements we’ve seen slowly arising over the past 15 years.
Sanders has done more to inspire us in that direction than even most of his strongest backers thought he could achieve a year ago. His legacy, win or lose, is us. It’s what we do with what he’s kindled. That’s true whether he wins the nomination and the presidency or only gets 10 minutes to speak to the crowd at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia six months from now.
Bringing his cross-generational vision to fruition—however long it takes—is our task, whether we just turned 18 or are pushing 75. We won’t get there whining about how the odds are stacked against us. They definitely are. But that shouldn’t stop us any more than our predecessors were stopped when the odds were stacked against them. As Frederick Douglass once famously said, "If there is no struggle, there is no progress."
In the streets and in the voting booths, it is by focused and relentless struggle that we can bring about the changes our nation desperately needs in spite of the obstacles—the sexists, the racists, the homophobes, the warmongers, the plutocrats, and their marionettes in Congress. We should adopt the message of the Galaxy Quest folks: Never give up. Never surrender.
Sticking to it requires that we take seriously what Sanders has repeated throughout the first seven months of his campaign.